Tuesday, December 23, 2008

In recent weeks, I've determined that rather than being a bearer of good tidings, I'm more of a...Holiday A-Hole. Not that I'm not an A-Hole 365 days of the year, but my A-Holishness seems to kick up a few notches during the Holiday Season. So it seems fitting that I would end this year (seeing as I suspect my lazy ass probably won't blog again until 2009--SEE YOUSE NEXT YEAR HURR HURR) with some of my patented amicable irritation and rage. (It's mostly not fat-themed and wow, I am using some adult language, that is for sure.)

1. Stop bitching about not being “allowed” to say “Merry Christmas” because it’s OMG NOT P.C. Unless you have supercool mind-reading abilities that can tell you the person you’re dealing with is Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist or whatev (or the person is sporting hijab, peyos, yarmulke etc.), a good rule of thumb to remember for all eternity is ERR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION. So, even though it may make your buttocks clench with fiery, righteous rage, say “Happy Holidays” if you don’t know the person’s persuasion. However, on the flip side…

2. Unless you’re wearing the garb of your particular religious persuasion (i.e. hijab, peyos, yarmulke, etc.), people can’t tell what persuasion you happen to be. So cool your jets, ace, and don’t get all hinky because someone said “Merry Christmas” to you instead of “Happy Holidays” or said “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”. I had an instance of that a couple of weeks ago. A guy needed change for a five. I didn’t have change, but I did have a couple of singles, so I told him to take the singles and rock on. When he approached me on the el platform to thank me again, I said “have a nice holiday” and he admonished me for getting it wrong. “Christmas, I celebrate Christmas”. In my head I was thinking, “I want my fucking two dollars back, you jackass.”

3. If you encounter someone like me, someone who does not care for this time of year and can’t wait for it to be over, please don’t try to infuse me and my ilk with Holiday Cheer. The reasons why I don’t like this time of year are varied and would probably not make sense to you, and that’s okay because it’s none of your goddamned business. I’m perfectly content not liking Christmas. I’m not trying to dissuade you from being in love with the season. Knock yourselves out. Stop thinking it’s some sort of tragedy that I don’t like it. Stop thinking you’re going to be the one who is going to “fix it”. That kind of behavior doesn’t endear you to me. It’s off-putting and obtrusive. Don’t get passive-aggressive about it either, because that’s even more off-putting. (P.S. to a certain person: the key to passive-aggression is subtlety. You’re doing it wrong.)

4. A special message to the jackholes who were behind me at the Nine Inch Nails concert in Vegas: I HOPE YOUR COLONS FALL OUT. See, I’m one of those crrrrazy people who go to a concert to listen to the music, not to hear your conversations. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the volume level at a NIN show, let’s just say it’s like a jet engine times a motrillion. Imagine being seated in front of people who take that as a challenge to talk over the jet engine-level volume. I had Huey, Duey, and Louie yapping endlessly while getting ‘faced (yeah, you are SEW KEWL because you can drink in Vegas!) in one ear, and then JoeBob Superfan and his girlfriend directly behind me. JoeBob’s a true superfan because he owns almost all the CDs and DVDs, you know. When he wasn’t whistling at eardrum-shattering levels directly into my other ear, he was shouting along with my beloved Trent Reznor or explaining to his girlfriend the deeper meanings behind songs. It was all I could do not to turn around and offer all of them $20 a piece to shut the fuck up. Thankfully, TR brought some serious-ass rock and my lingering memories will be of him blowing the roof off the dump rather than the douchetronics seated behind me.

5. Take a day off from berating yourself for, you know, eating. There are creepy creatures out there who would tell you the Best Way To Be is to go to holiday dinners and parties with a notebook to document in detail what you put into your mouth. Nothing says “holiday fun” like whipping out a notebook to exhaustively document what you eat. And FYI: dieting doesn’t make you a saint or a better person. It just makes you boring as hell if you’re incapable of not talking about it.

6. Hey, Mom – please stop with the “my son is married and my daughters are single but VERY successful, which is fine”. It’s kind of annoying, particularly when it only applies to two of your daughters. I haven’t been put in jail, so I reckon that makes me “successful”. And it’s not “fine” for me, frankly. Let’s lead this into...

6a. Please refrain from telling me I should be grateful. I’ve discussed this before, but let me bring it up one more time since the “grateful” tends to go hand-in-hand with the whole “How can you hate Chriiiiiiiiistmissssssssss???”. For everything that I do have (friends, roof over head, employment, blah blah blah), there is always going to be a metaphorical hole in my alleged heart that is not going to be filled by friends, roof over head, employment, hobbies, blah blah blah. Platonic love, such as it is, will never satisfy me. Being the wacky asexual sidekick/third wheel doesn’t make me turn cartwheels of glee. I don’t “need” a partner/relationship. I want one. But because of whatever (anonymous commenters like to point out that I’m “angry” and that’s why I’m kryptonite to the male population of the universe), it doesn’t appear to be in the cards. You can also refrain from suggesting every dating site on the interwebs, too – I have been a busy beave over the last few months, sending out messages on a variety of sites to cats and I have not received one response. And let me again emphasize that is FINE. I understand that I am not 99.99999 percent of the universe’s bag. I get that. But don’t tell me that I shouldn’t have moments of sadness, that I shouldn’t be a touch resentful, and I shouldn’t be ANGRY that I ain’t feeling too great about being alone. Mind you, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, I am able to function, entertain myself, travel alone and I won’t be sitting in the house every weekend and I will make do until I kick off. But I will rage about it and I will raise hell about it until the day I fucking die, and if that’s problematic for you? Tough titty says the kitty. If nothing else, feel free to use me as your own lesson in gratitude. (However, I do charge for the privilege. I have PayPal.)

So that’s how I’m ending this year. I request 2008 get the fuck out of my face A.S.A.P. and here’s hoping 2009 doesn’t suck completely. Thanks for reading, and I hope you are able to find the occasional chuckle/coherent thought in this potpourri of genial raging that I do.

7 comments:

See, I’m one of those crrrrazy people who go to a concert to listen to the music, not to hear your conversations.

When I was performing music, this used to annoy me spectacularly. Especially since I wasn't loud enough to overpower all the people who were so in love with their own voices they couldn't bear not to hear them (loudly) for an entire hour while I sang. I kept thinking, "What am I, the wallpaper?" I'd rather play in front of three people who are listening than 20,000 who think I'm wallpaper. But maybe Trent Reznor thinks the yakkers' money is as good as anyone else's, I dunno.

Please refrain from telling me I should be grateful.

According to Twisty Faster, "you should" is hate speech. It's never truer than at this time of the year. Anyone who's REALLY happy doesn't need everyone else to smile, even if they hope that soon they'll have enough of a reason to.

As a fellow asexual individual, I love how people seem to assume that people who don't crave sex 24/7 don't need affection or love from an intimate relationship. Seriously? It's gotta be one or the other?

And regarding the rest of your post, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I've always gotten grumpy around the holidays, because people seem to think it's their business to tell you exactly what you should do/believe/think/celebrate/be thankful for. Especially the "War on Christmas" people.

I don't care if people can't psychically know I'm not Christian, being wished Merry Christmas is actually a very nice thing. I just hate it when people snap at me for saying "Happy Holidays". It's NOT THAT IMPORTANT.

Wow do I get this!! I have been dreading Christmas for months, because that meant the whole family would be here. My two absolutely perfect sisters who can do no wrong, with their perfect successful husbands, and my sisters totally perfect kids all here 24/7 for like two weeks... and I am constantly reminded in subtle and pretty obvious ways that I do not fit in, that I am a disappointment. I get to be watched at all meals or whenever I enter the kitchen, and I get to hear the little comments ... all the time. No one really talks TO me, my one bro in law actually asked me about my upcoming college stuff for five minutes and I was so shocked to be talked to.

So I just try to be invisible lol, I hide in my room.. which of course isn't acceptable either because I should want to be around this all the time right?

I don't fit in my family that is just the simple fact of it all, and it makes the holidays a really hard and lonely place to be, because it is all for families and I just don't feel like I have one.

This may not be the most topical comment for this post, but I just wanted to take the time to say that, of all the blogs on the fatosphere, I find yours the one I feel like I can relate to best. There's so much talk of relationships on the fatosphere. As someone who would like to be in a relationship and who is open to being in a relationship, but thinks that I'm not likely to ever have one, I often feel left out with so much talk of people discovering how they're lovable after all (as wonderful as that is).

I'm left thinking, "That's great, but what is someone who is gradually realizing that they may not be able to get into a relationship to do?" I feel left out on a lot of other fatosphere blogs in this issue.

One thing I really appreciate about your opinions is that, while you admit to wanting a relationship, you make it clear that, if you're going to have a relationship, it's going to result from you being yourself. I feel the same way. I'm willing to work to make a relationship work, but ultimately that relationship has to be between myself (as I am now) and another person. I'm not going to act like a totally different person in a desperate bid to enter into a relationship, because I don't think that would be meaningful or enjoyable.

In any case, I just wanted to mention how much I appreciate your blog. There seem to be very few resources on the Internet for people who are (involuntarily) single for the long-term. Quirkyalone sort of addresses the issue, but they make it clear that to be one of them you have to be pretty fine with not being in a relationship. I mean, I'll try to make the most of my life as a single person, but that doesn't mean that I'm not often sad, on some level, that my life is so lonely. Anyway, thanks for your posts. I enjoy reading them.